Obama Admin Issues Guidance To Contractors To Violate Law

So, Obama is telling Defense Contractors to violate the WARN Act and the taxpayer will pick up any legal liability the companies face by violating the law. This sounds like another impeachable offense by this President.
----The Obama administration issued new guidance intended for defense contractors Friday afternoon, reiterating the administrationâs position that the companies should not be issuing layoff notices over sequestration.

The Labor Department issued guidance in July saying it would be âinappropriateâ for contractors to issue notices of potential layoffs tied to sequestration cuts. But a few contractors, most notably Lockheed Martin, said they still were considering whether to issue the notices â which would be sent out just days before the November election.

But the Friday guidance from the Office of Management and Budget raised the stakes in the dispute, telling contractors that they would be compensated for legal costs if layoffs occur due to contract cancellations under sequestration â but only if the contractors follow the Labor guidance.

The guidance said that if plant closings or mass layoffs occur under sequestration, then âemployee compensation costs for [Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification] WARN act liability as determined by a courtâ would be paid for covered by the contracting federal agency.

Senate Republicans, who accused the White House of trying to hide job losses after the first guidance, said Friday that the new OMB statement âputs politics ahead of American workers.â

âThe Obama Administration is cynically trying to skirt the WARN Act to keep the American people in the dark about this looming national security and fiscal crisis,â Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said in a statement. âThe president should insist that companies act in accordance with the clearly stated law and move forward with the layoff notices.â

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says that he will do anything he can to block the Obama administration from reimbursing defense contractors for severance costs if the firms donât send layoff notices to employees.

The Obama administration issued guidance Friday that said defense firmsâ costs would be covered if they have to layoff workers due to canceled contracts under the across-the-board cuts set to take effect Jan. 2.

The layoff notices have become a politically charged issue because they could have come just four days ahead of the election because of a 60-day notice required by federal law for mass layoffs.

Graham and other Republicans were livid after the Obama administration issued the guidance on Friday telling contractors that their legal costs would be covered due to canceled contracts under sequestration, but only if they did not issue layoff notices before sequestration occurs â and before the November election.

âI will do everything in my power to make sure not one taxpayer dollar is spent reimbursing companies for failure to comply with WARN Act,â Graham told The Hill in a phone interview Monday. âThat is so beyond the pale â I think itâs patently illegal.â

The guidance prompted Lockheed Martin â which had previously threatened to send out notices of potential layoffs to all of its 123,000 employees â to say Monday it would not send notices this year under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.